


Morning Interlude

by kaynibbler16



Series: Out of Alignment [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 2nd ficlet in the series, A little angst, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I believe Eight's original outfit was a Wild Bill Hickok costume
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14287092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaynibbler16/pseuds/kaynibbler16
Summary: Either someone had broken into her apartment or the Doctor was making her breakfast.





	Morning Interlude

Rose woke to the sound of someone quietly humming as they moved around her kitchen. Normally she would panic and demand to know who was in her apartment or immediately call the police, but as soon as she opened her eyes she saw her favorite blue box sitting casually next to the telly that she had fallen asleep in front of the night before. There was only one being who felt comfortable enough to be walking around her apartment while she was still sleeping.

Actually, it was rather annoying that he did that.

Today was different, though. He wasn’t being loud or making his usual racket. If anything, it seemed the Doctor was being quite solicitous of the human sleeping just meters away. Odd.

Rose sat up and stretched, feeling her joints crack painfully from a night spent sleeping on her couch instead of her bed. She was going to be sore for a while, but it wouldn’t be the first time. Taking a deep breath she caught the scent of food and her stomach rumbled impatiently in response.

Shuffling into the kitchen, she stopped in shock at the sight before her. A veritable buffet of breakfast foods was laid out before her. Eggs, bacon, beans, toast, sausage, fried tomatoes, and ham. A proper fry up.

But the most shocking thing was the man standing by the stove. Rose had never seen him before which meant that either someone had indeed broken into her apartment and was making breakfast for her or the Doctor had changed again.

“Good morning, Rose! Tea will be ready in just a moment. Go ahead and have a seat,” the Doctor said without turning around.

In a daze, Rose slid into the seat closest to her, not taking her eyes off the new Doctor. She jolted a bit when the kettle whistled and the Doctor poured them each a cuppa. When he finally turned around she got a good look at him. Vibrant blue eyes set in a handsome face surrounded by curly brown hair made Rose swallow around a newly formed lump in her throat.

Dear lord, he was gorgeous.

Rose watched him walk over and hand her a cup before settling into the chair across from her. He smiled warmly. “So, what do you think?”

“Wha’?“

“The new body?” He leaned forward, clearly curious about her opinion.

Rose couldn’t help sweeping her eyes up and down his body, blushing furiously as she returned to his face. “It’s, um, nice.”

To distract herself from looking at the Doctor’s new attractive body, she began filling her plate with food.

“Nice? That’s it?” He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Not dashing, debonair, or even charming? Just nice.”

“Um, really nice?” Rose said between bites of egg.

He huffed in dismay before taking a bite of his own breakfast. “Figures. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t go for leather this time around. You might have said I just looked okay.”

Rose snorted. “I don’t think you could pull off a catsuit at any time around, Doctor.”

The Doctor choked on his toast before spluttering, “A leather jacket, Rose! Get you mind out of the gutter.”

Rose just smirked and took a sip of her tea. “You should have specified, then.”

“I’ll have you know, Rose, that I could most certainly pull off anything, even a catsuit.”

“I’d like to see that,” Rose said without thinking.

She realized what she had said a moment too late when the Doctor gave her devious grin. “Would you now?”

Was he flirting with her?

“What? No, that’s not–I didn’t mean it like that! Oh, shut up. I just woke up.” Rose studiously avoided his eyes after that, too embarrassed by her flub. “So, when did you change?”

“A few weeks ago. Ran afoul of a few surgeons in San Francisco, 1999, who had never seen a binary vascular system. I was trying to take the Master’s remains back to Gallifrey when I got shot. Long story short, the Master survived somehow and tried to steal the rest of my regenerations by opening the Eye of Harmony. It didn’t end well for him,” he explained.

Rose nodded throughout his story. She would never understand his relationship with the other Time Lord. The Master, who used to be the Doctor’s best friend Koschei, was sadistic and enjoyed torturing the Doctor for fun. Rose couldn’t imagine a pacifist like the Doctor tolerating such behavior, but then again he was a very different person than the man she first met two years ago. The Master must have been a very different person back then, too.

Thinking back on the Doctor’s earlier words about regeneration, Rose is reminded of something that had been bothering her for some time now. “I remember you once saying that Time Lords only had twelve regenerations given to them.”

“That’s right.”

“So that makes this your, what, eighth body?”

He grinned. “It does.”

Rose swallowed around the burning sensation in the back of her throat. “So, in the two years that I’ve known you, you’ve gone through seven bodies.”

The Doctor stopped eating and frowned at her. “Yes?”

Rose couldn’t get out the words she actually wanted to say so she just shrugged and said, “Just keeping count.”

He stared at her for another moment before giving her a tight smile. “Hopefully, this one will last a little longer than the others. It’s not like I go looking for trouble.”

Rose guffawed. “You, not looking for trouble? Please. You might as well wear a sign that says “Troublemaker” around your neck to save people time.”

The Doctor looked mock offended at her words. “Now where is the fun in that?”

They both burst out laughing.

He might change bodies every so often, but to Rose he would be always be the Doctor through and through and that’s fine with her.

Although, she was curious about one thing this time around.

“So, Doctor, why are you dressed like a saloon patron?”


End file.
